Verizon and AT&T LTE likely to be incompatible

0.phoneArena
14 Jul 2011, 17:07posted on

Bad news for consumer portability, it looks like users won't be able to swap SIM cards on the new LTE networks springing up in the US like you can with many GSM providers, because the frequencies will likely be incompatible between Verizon LTE and AT&T LTE...

I don't think you are correct Phonearena, the msm9600 chip set supports all those frequencies and CDMA rev A ,1X, HSPA+ . At&T could however use the MSM9200 chipset that does not support CDMA rev A and 1X this could be true and just like the verizon phones they could lock out support for other networks

Remember that AT&T's intended plans are to repurpose T-Mobile's 1700MHz 3.5G HSPA+ spectrum to their new LTE network.
That would make 700/1700 dual band LTE, 850/1900 dual band UMTS/HSPA+, and 850/1900 dual band GSM/GPRS/EDGE for AT&T.
I am sure that if Nokia can make nearly every model smartphone penta-band compatible with both AT&T AND T-Mobile's 3.5G networks (and soon Samsung will as well with its Hercules), then one company will use a multi-mode, multi-band radio.
It's rumored that iApple will release its next iPhone to be compatible with both Verizon and Sprint + AT&T and T-Mobile to help with the merger and transition to different bands for that MaBell/TMO monopoly proposition. Hopefully they will set a precedent and cause other manufacturers to imitate, copy, or play catch-up at the benefit of the consumer.

10.Gary (unregistered)

Doesn't mean we can't have dual/tri/quad-band LTE phones sometime in the future. They also need to enable voice-over-LTE for complete compatibility (since Verizon's current LTE phones only use LTE for data).

12.joe78 (unregistered)

14.Dv (unregistered)

This is a bogus story, look at AT&T their GSM frequency is different the the vast majority of the world you have to have a quad band phone provided by AT&T for it to work in the rest of the world. I believe they will remedy the frequency discrepancies in a similar fashion due to the fact that over 120 global carriers have committed to LTE and there will be plenty of variations of frequencies used around the world.

Verizon Is the only company that will have sebiquas 700mhz spectrum coast to coast. AT&T and the other carriers and providers such as Lightsquared will have pockets of 700mhz but there will be variations of frequency resulting in inconsistent signal strenghth and indoor penetration.

The potential variation of frequency will not be an issue will phones being compatible once the carriers foot prints are completely converted to LTE. This may be an issue in the transition years due to the carriers having to put radios in the phones that will communicate with the existing networks which are not compatible.

AT&T shouldn't worry too much sense their self assessment put them 2-3 years behind Verizon in LTE infrastructure build out without a sebiquas spectrum.

The LTE SIM cards are not the same as GSM SIM cards. You can't swap them from device to device. The LTE SIM cards are meant to only work with the ESN/Device ID on that specific device. When you change devices, you have to get another LTE SIM card. The SIMs that Verizon carries for "voice" are in their global phones ... like the Incredible 2, BB Storm, and Motorola Droid 3. LTE SIMS give access for 4G data only.

There is a standard for holding a CDMA subscription in a SIM card known as a CSIM. Some Verizon LTE handsets support CSIM and hence you can move the SIM from handset to handset and all works fine. There are also some older Verizon LTE handsets that still use the NVRAM for the CDMA subscription and only use the SIM for the LTE subscription and for these when you move the SIM, only the LTE data moves.

Remember that AT&T's intended plans are to repurpose T-Mobile's 1700MHz 3.5G HSPA+ spectrum to their new LTE network. That would make 700/1700 dual band LTE, 850/1900 dual band UMTS/HSPA+, and 850/1900 dual band GSM/GPRS/EDGE for AT&T.I am sure that if Nokia can make nearly every model smartphone penta-band compatible with both AT&T AND T-Mobile's 3.5G networks (and soon Samsung will as well with its Hercules), then one company will use a multi-mode, multi-band radio.It's rumored that iApple will release its next iPhone to be compatible with both Verizon and Sprint + AT&T and T-Mobile to help with the merger and transition to different bands for that MaBell/TMO monopoly proposition. Hopefully they will set a precedent and cause other manufacturers to imitate, copy, or play catch-up at the benefit of the consumer.

That's not surprising. At&t has the upper part of the 700Mhz spectrum and Verizon has the lower. Just like how At&t and T-Mo both run on GSM, but At&t's 3G is not compatible with T-Mo's and visa versa.

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